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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 29th, 2017–Dec 30th, 2017

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Olympics.

A decreasing avalanche danger will be seen on Saturday. Watch for new signs of wind transported snow on lee slopes on Saturday. Avoid large terrain convexities on W-NW-N-NE slopes below ridgelines where the somewhat reactive 12/16 may be present until we know more about it.

Detailed Forecast

A change to moderate to strong WSW winds and cooling should be seen Friday night following the front. Hurricane should get about 2-4 inches of new snow with a cooling trend by Saturday morning.

Overall this will lead to a decreasing avalanche danger on Saturday. The expected modest new snow and the cooling trend should favor up right side up snow.

With the recent SSE winds and the change to WSW winds Friday night new wind slab is possible on about W-SE aspects. Avoid lee slopes with these aspects especially if you see signs of firmer wind transported snow.

The persistent slab at Hurricane seen by Matt is a low probability but high consequence avalanche problem. Avoid large terrain convexities on W-NW-N-NE slopes below ridgelines where the somewhat reactive 12/16 was found on Friday, until we know more about it.

Also despite all the new snow, early season hazards still exist at some lower elevation locales and especially around creek beds that are not filled in.

Snowpack Discussion

We are at the tail end of a couple of days of very active changeable complex weather. On Thursday strong westerly flow aloft carried a very moist occluded front across the NW. On Friday a moderately deepening low pressure system is crossing the Cape Flattery area and a strong cold front will cross the Northwest Friday evening.

By Friday morning there was 3 inches of new snow that fell with an overall slight warming trend at Hurricane. Winds on Friday have been generally SSE 20's gust 40's on Friday with and it looks like the snow level rose enough for a change to rain at Hurricane.

Regular though ususally light snow also accumulated at Hurricane as very weak weather disturbances crossed the Northwest in about the past week. 

Observations

NWAC pro observer Matt Schonwald visited Hurricane Ridge on Friday 12/29 and stressed that this is a different snowpack than the Cascades! He visited W-NW-N-NE aspects and found the 12/16 crust and 1-2 mm facets at 75-80 cm. Several PST tests self arrested but propagated through most of the column along the 12/16 layer. This should indicate that a persistent slab layer could be triggered most likely on a large convex slopes below the ridgelines. Matt also noted wind slab developing with weaker storm layers down about 17 cm in recent snow and at 25 cm at recent/old snow interface.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.